The Neighbor (a mini fic)

Part 1

I was trying to carry too many things at once and ended up struggling. "Hey can I help you with that?" I heard a very thick Australian accent say before feeling someone grabbing the big box from me.

"Oh! Thanks!" I smiled at him, now able to actually see who it was. He was really good looking. I mean like, make your knees buckle attractive. And that smile. I could've stared at him for hours. "I'm Amy. I just moved into 326".

"Oh so YOU'RE my new neighbor!" He exclaimed as we walked down the hallway. "I was wondering who was moving in. That apartment has been empty since I moved here. I'm Daniel by the way".

"It's nice to meet you" I smiled as we got to my door and I opened it. We walked inside "just set it anywhere, I've no idea what is in what box anymore" I laughed at my own disorganization.

Daniel set the box down in the living room and noticed something in an open box. He picked up the small picture frame and looked at it. It was a photo of me and my parents, about a month before they had passed away. We had our arms around each other and huge grins on our faces. It was taken on our last holiday together at the beach. "Nice picture" he said as he heard me walking into the room.

He held the photo out for me to see. I smiled when I noticed which one he was talking about. "Yeah" I smiled. "Those were my parents. Uh..." I paused, not sure if I should divulge such heavy information to someone who was still a stranger to me. I decided to anyway since I realized I had already mentioned them in the past tense and could tell Daniel had picked up on it. "they actually passed away 2 years ago".

"Both of them?" he asked quietly, looking up at me, wondering if he'd heard me right.

"Yeah. Um they died in a car accident" I said and pursed my lips, not really sure if there was a way to lighten the mood at all. I just looked at him, trying to gauge his response.

His face dropped. He looked down to the photo, then back up at me. It looked like he was thinking about something, maybe not sure what he should say. "I can't even imagine going through something like that. I'm so sorry" he looked at me genuinely.

"Thank you" was all I could really think to say. We just stared at each other for a second and then I started to look at all the boxes around the room. When did I acquire so many things? There were boxes everywhere. This was going to take forever.

Daniel seemed to notice my look of distress. "I'm not doing anything later if you want some help unpacking" he offered.

"Really?" I asked, thinking maybe he's just being nice. He nodded and smiled at me. "That would actually be really helpful" I smiled back.

"Great! I have to go train for a bit, but I can be here around 5:30. I'll bring dinner yeah?" He said as he was walking towards the door, practically tripping over things in the entryway.

"Careful!" I laughed at how his enthusiasm was making him a bit clumsy. "That sounds perfect, thank you".

"Cool, see you later" he said as he closed the door behind him.

A few hours later I had gone through about 75% of the boxes when I barely heard the knock at my door. "Alexa, pause music!" I shouted as I went to answer the door. I opened it to see Daniel holding a bottle of wine and an oven dish covered with foil.

"Did you cook?" I asked, surprised, as I let him in.

"Yeah, I figured you might prefer home cooked instead of takeout for the second time today" he smiled as he gestured towards the takeout containers that were still on my counter from lunch. He must've seen them when he was here earlier.

I looked at the containers in disbelief at how thoughtful he was. I mean we had only just met today. "That's really nice of you" I smiled at him. "Thank you so much".